As Nigeria’s economy continues to wobble over dwindling oil revenue and effect of the novel coronavirus, a group has called on the National Assembly and the members of the Executive arm of government to take a pay cut in order to save cost thereby safeguarding the economy.
The group under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria, CCN in an open letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari which was signed by Dare Glintstone-Akinniyi who is the convener of the movement expressed their dissatisfaction that government at all levels including the National Assembly seems to be unperturbed by the state of the economy and are carrying on as if nothing is amiss.
He, therefore, charged the leadership of the National Assembly to take a 50 percent pay cut while calling on President Buhari to as a matter of urgency mandate the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to start the process of reviewing the salaries and allowances of elected public servants.
“As a people, we wish to state clearly that we are by this letter, officially, calling for a ‘50% cut of our NASS’ overheads, personal allowances, and salaries and also to cut down the running cost of the Executive arm of government. As the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, you, (President Muhammadu Buhari), must display that you are serious about the welfare of the people you promise to protect. We call on your office to mandate the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation And Fiscal Commission to start the process of reviewing salaries and allowances of elected public servants and by extension the adoption of the 2015 RMAFC’s report, which you have refused to absorb and present to the National Assembly, formally. All pointers show that the will and powers to initiate the process of cutting down the running cost of all arms of government lies in your person. For 5 weeks, Nigerians have sacrificed their businesses, beliefs, pleasure, education, movement, and salaries/wages during the lockdown, it is time for those elected to represent us to do the same. Why will 469 Citizens earn more than over 150million Nigerians? These are people with a 3 work-day-a-week status with long recess cumulating into months – they barely work for 6 months a year.
Let them also reduce their costs based on their ‘3 work-day-a-week status’ and give more to their Constituents.
Some of them rarely visit the people they represent. Our politicians are less troubled with the cost they incur in public service notwithstanding the fact that about 120 million of the 200 million citizens live in extreme poverty. We can only push, agitate, and fight for the cutting of the salaries and allowances of our federal legislators and influence salary cuts for the state, too. If this happens, it will help Nigeria in the fight against corruption; and the money saved from excessive pay can be diverted to other sectors. This MUST happen!” he added.
Akinniyi posited that these drastic and necessary measures become imperative in the face of the current economic crisis facing the country.
“We wish to bring to the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari if he is not yet aware that our dear country is on the throes of economic woes and the threat of another recession is looming over us like a Sword of Damocles. Just a few days ago, the Honorable Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed told the whole world that the Nigerian government will for the second time further revise the year’s budget oil benchmark to $20 per barrel. This is in response to the dwindling oil prices and the glut in the international market. As Africa’s top oil exporter, we rely heavily on crude sales for around 90% of foreign exchange earnings and more than half of government revenue. The economy has been battered by low oil prices following a dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia, as well as the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic” he said.
Speaking further, Akinniyi said the projection for the country is grim and scary hence the need for everyone to be on the same page seeing that about 40 percent of Nigerians (or 82.9 million people) live in abject poverty and on less than N376.5 per day.
‘Ahmed told the whole world a few days ago that the Nigerian government will for the second time further revise the year’s budget oil benchmark to $20 per barrel and we are staring another recession right in the face. About 40 percent of Nigerians (or 82.9 million people) live in abject poverty and on less than N400 per day according to a recent NBS report.
In all of these, the National Assembly and the Executive Arm of Government {except for selected individuals} appear unperturbed, unfazed and unconcerned. In fact, it is safe to say they are playing ostrich. Or, how do you explain that in the bill President Muhammadu Buhari laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on October 8, 2019, N125bn was proposed for the federal parliament under statutory transfers. And on the 5th of December, 2019, the National Assembly raised its budget for 2020 by a whopping N3b from the initial N125bn to N128bn, this increment forms part of the increase in the size of the national budget, which has been raised from the proposed N10.33tn to about N10.6tn.
In the past, many Nigerians have chorused unanimously for the reduction of our federal legislators’ budgets. It is on the backdrop of this, that we are re-echoing the same sincere demands’ Akinniyi said.